Electrical connector

ABSTRACT

AN ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR FOR A BOARD OR OTHER PANEL MEMBER HAVING WIRE CONDUCTORS OR PRINTED CIRCUITRY ASSOCIATED THEREWITH AND COMPRISING A HOUSING FORMED OF A DIELECTRIC MATERIAL HAVING A PLURALITY OF ELECTRICAL CONTACTS MOUNTED THEREIN. THE CONTACTS ARE RETAINED WITHIN THE HOUSING BY MEANS OF A FIBER MAT IMPREGNATED WITH A HEAT-RESPONSIVE PLASTIC RESIN.

Jan- 5, 1971 4 R, H|LDEBRAND ET AL 3,553,632

ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR Filed Oct. 21., 1968 Y 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 James Ross HILDEBEHND BY Lm'u STEPHEN UGHTNER Jonm Eownwo Wmsow Eil Z INVENTOR.

Jan. 5, 1971 J H|| DEB RAND ET AL 3,553,632

ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR Filed Oct. 21, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 I NVENTOR.

y Lmw STEPHEN LIGHTNER OHM Euwmzo \Jn'rsom James @655 Hm): BE'HND United States Patent O 3,553,632 ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR .Iames Ross Hildebrand and Linn Stephen Lightner,

Camp Hill, and John Edward Watson, York, Pa., assignors to AMP Incorporated, Harrisburg, Pa.

Filed Oct. 21, 1968, Ser. No. 769,328 Int. Cl. H01r 9/04, 13/50 U.S. Cl. 339-176 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This application relates to the type of electrical connectors described and claimed in U.S. application Ser. No. 759,971, filed Sept. 16, 1968, entitled Miniature Electrical Connector and having a common assignee with the instant application.

This invention provides an electrical connector for use with a circuitry board. Throughout the specification and claims when the term circuitry board is used it is to be understood that this term broadly encompasses any panel member or memory frame provided with electrical conductors in either wire or printed form. The connector of the instant invention utilizes an insulating housing formed as a one-piece mold which receives electrical contacts along one side thereof and also receives a fiber mat for retaining the contacts in position within the housing. The fiber mat is impregnated with a plastic resin which may be either thermosetting or thermoplastic whereby upon the application of heat and pressure the mat is caused to become bonded in position to thereby secure the contacts. The contacts within the housing may be either male or female contacts in the same manner as set forth in the earlier filed above-identified application.

It is an object of this invention to provide an electrical connector having novel means for retaining a plurality of electrical contacts within an insulating housing.

A further object is to provide an electrical connector of simple and inexpensive construction which permits extremely miniature contacts to be effectively retained in position within their housing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the drawings in which like reference numerals refer to like parts:

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a first form of an electrical connector made in accordance with the teachings of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 2--2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view similar to FIG. 2 and showing the contact retaining member in position within the housing;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view similar to FIG. 3 showing an alternative form of connector; and

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the contact retaining member of the connector shown in FIG. 4.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The attainments of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading of the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the drawings in which there are shown and described illustrative embodiments of the invention; it is to be understood, however, that these embodiments are not intended to be exhaustive nor limiting of the invention but are given for purpose of illustration in order that others skilled in the art may fully understand the invention and the principles thereof and the manner of applying it in practical use so that they modify it in various forms, each as may be best suited to the conditions of a particular use.

In FIG. 1 there is shown a connector 10 which constitutes the preferred embodiment of this invention. The connector comprises a contact housing 12 which is preferably molded from a dielectric material such as diallyl phthalate or other similar material. The housing 12 is provided with a plurality of contact receiving apertures 14 and 16 disposed respectively along two parallel planes. The apertures 14 are offset or staggered in relation to the apertures 16 to permit minimum spacing between apertures thus yielding maximum contact density. The opposite side of the housing from the apertures 14 and 16 is provided with a generally rectangular opening 18 from which extend the tab portions 20 and 22 of the electrical contacts located within the housing apertures.

As seen in FIG. 2 a female contact 24 is located within each of the apertures 14 in the contact housing and a contact 26 is located within each of the apertures 16. The tabs 20 and 22 extending respectively from the contacts 24 and 26 lie on opposite sides of the rectangular opening 18 in the housing and are in position to be connected to external circuitry on a circuitry board or the like.

The contacts 24 and 26 are inserted into the housing 12 from left to right as seen in FIG. 2. The extent of movement of the contacts in the insertion direction is limited by shoulder means 2 8 located within each of the apertures 14 and 16 adjacent the front face of the housing. A conical surface 30 is provided adjacent the shoulders 28 to provide lead-in for the contacts 32 (see FIG. 3) which mate with the contacts 24 and 26. It is, of course, to be understood that the relative disposition of the male and female contacts could be reversed without departing from the scope of this invention.

In order to retain the contacts 24 and 26 in position within the insulating housing there is provided a retaining member 34. The retaining member is of generally channel-shaped configuration for reception within the Opening or recess 18 formed in the housing. As seen in FIG. 3 the retaining member is adapted to engage the tab portions of the electrical contacts to thereby prevent the contacts from being removed from the housing. The member 34 is dimensioned to fit snugly within the recess in the housing. Member 34 is preferably formed from a fibrous mat material impregnated with a suitable heat-responsive plastic resin. The resin may be of either the thermosetting or thermoplastic type, however, a thermosetting resin is generally preferred because of its higher temperature capabilities and its more permanent nature. Therefore, once member 34 is positioned within the recess 18 it is merely necessary to apply heat and pressure to the member 34 to cause such member to bond itself in position for permanent retention. It can be seen that the one retaining member 34 may be used for retaining large numbers of contacts within a connector housing thereby eliminating the necessity of providing individual retention mechanisms on each contact. In addition, when extremely miniature contacts are used it is often impossible to provide a locking mechanism directly on the contact due to insufficient available material. In those cases resort to external retention members becomes necessary.

In FIG. 4 there is shown an alternative form of electrical connector indicated generally at 40. The connector comprises a housing 42 which is identical to the housing 12 described above with the exception that housing 42 does not provide a rectangular recess such as 18 and, therefore, housing 42 is considerably narrower than housing 12. The reason for this difference between housings is that the connector 10 would normally be used as an edge connector for a circuitry board and would receive an edge of the board within the recess 18. However, connector 40 would normally be secured to a side face of a circuitry board and, therefore, no recess is necessary. A plurality of contacts 24 and 26 are positioned within housing 42 and are identical to the contacts described in connection with FIGS. 1 through 3. Tab portions 44 and 46 extend respectively from the contacts 24 and 26 and are disposed to lie generally along a common plane so as to be in position to contact current carrying members along the face of a circuitry board.

A retaining member 48 is provided and performs the same function and is of the same material as the retaining member 34 described above. Member 48 is generally elongated and will assume the shape shown in FIG. 5 upon being heated and pressed within the ends of the contact-receiving apertures in housing 42. The initial shape of member 48 is normally that of a fiat sheet. The final shape after heat and pressure are applied thereto will vary according to the particular connector housing with which the retaining member is used. The manner of operation of member 48 will, however, remain the same regardless of its final external configuration.

Changes in construction will occur to those skilled in a the art and various apparently different modifications and embodiments may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. The matter set forth in the foregoing description and accompanying drawings is offered by way of illustration only. The actual scope of the invention is intended to be defined in the following claims when viewed in their proper perspective against the prior art.

What is claimed is:

1. An electrical connector for a circuitry board or the like comprising a housing formed of a dielectric material and having a plurality of regularly spaced apertures disposed therein, said apertures extending between a first side face and a second side face of said housing, a plurality of electrical contacts disposed respectively in said plurality of apertures and insertable from said second side face of said housing, shoulder means located in said apertures for limiting the insertion of said contacts toward said first side face, plastic means disposed adjacent said second side face of said housing and engaging said contacts for preventing extraction of said contacts from said housing, said plastic means comprising a fibrous mat material impregnated with a heat-responsive resin, tab means extending from said electrical contacts, said plastic means being in engagement with said tab means for maintaining said tab means in contact with said housing, said plastic means being of channel-shaped configuration and having the base of the channel adjacent the apertures.

2. An electrical connector as set forth in claim 1 further comprising tab means extending from said electrical contacts and extending generally along two parallel planes, said plastic means being in engagement with said tab means and disposed between said parallel planes, whereby a circuitry board is receivable within said connector between said parallel planes of contact tab means.

3. An electrical connector as set forth in claim 1 wherein said electrical contacts comprise female receptacles adapted to receive tab members.

4. An electrical connector as set forth in claim 3 wherein said plastic means is positioned to cover one end of said plurality of apertures thereby closing one end of said female receptacles.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,685,813 8/1954 Lampman et al 87-1 3,133,825 5/1964 Rubens 117-62 2,911,612 11/1959 Jackson et al. 339176(MP) 2,915,736 12/1959 Smith et al. 33917O 3,101,231 8/1963 Klostermann 339176 3,243,761 3/1966 Piorunneck 339217 3,399,377 8/1968 Warzecka 339176(MP) MARVIN A. CHAMPION, Primary Examiner L. J. STAAB, Assistant Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 339210, 218, 275 

